What to try from food in Vietnam. This is what they made from eel

The spicy and exotic cuisine of Vietnam cannot be put on par with the gastronomic traditions of neighboring countries. She borrowed a lot from the cuisines of China, India and France. Visiting small authentic cafes or restaurants in Vietnam becomes a real adventure for tourists who appreciate the variety of aromas and tastes.

Features of Vietnamese cuisine

Vietnamese cuisine is all about balance, which most often manifests itself in the use of two or more contrasting textures (crispy and soft) in one dish. Balance is maintained between the basic tastes: bitter and sweet, sour, salty and hot, the color of ingredients, herbs and spices, and even the harmonious use of cooling and warming ingredients in accordance with the principles of Yin-Yang.

Features of Vietnamese cuisine are:

freshness of food - dishes, as a rule, are prepared before serving and are not stored for future use;
using plenty of fresh herbs and vegetables;
popularity of dishes containing broth.

A wide variety of sauces are encouraged to be served separately from the prepared dish for adding or dipping. The most common seasonings in Vietnam are:

ginger;
lemongrass;
coriander (cilantro);
mint;
Thai basil;
Thai chili;
lime.

Widely applied fish sauce, chili sauce, soy sauce, shrimp paste. Food in Vietnam is not spicy; chili sauce or chili pepper is usually served separately as additional seasonings. Be sure, regardless of the dish you order, you will be served a plate of fresh herbs.

Fish sauce and shrimp paste

These products are used in almost all Vietnamese dishes. These seasonings are quite specific; they are based on fermented seafood. They are almost impossible to identify by eye, so food in Vietnam often becomes a problem for vegetarians or people with food allergies, but this does not mean that it is necessary to completely abandon Vietnamese cuisine.

Due to the fact that Buddhism is widespread among the Vietnamese, there is a special layer of monastic cooking in the country, which is considered not just vegetarian, it proclaims itself pure vegan. In other words, it does not use animal products, including dairy, eggs and animal fats. On the menu of some Vietnamese cafes you can see the words: beef, chicken, shrimp and fish. But in most cases we are talking about vegetarian substitutes for these products.

You can easily determine that you are in a vegetarian cafe by the inscription: “Kom tai,” which can be translated as “vegetarian food.” Often such establishments are located next to Buddhist temples.

First meal

What to try in Vietnam? We will tell you about many dishes, but we will start with soups, of which there are quite a lot in Vietnamese cuisine. They can be chosen to suit every taste. However, it is worth recognizing that the recognized leader in this category is the world-famous Vietnamese soup pho, which is a kind of calling card of Vietnamese cuisine.

Pho is actually flat rice noodles that are used to make Vietnamese soup. There are other dishes with such noodles that contain the word "pho" in their name. For example, pho fried noodles with beef.

But we digress a little. Let's get back to Vietnamese pho soup. It is very popular not only among locals, but also among tourists coming to the country. The base of the soup is made from beef with seasonings, chicken or vegetables. The aromatic spicy broth is prepared in advance; before serving the dish, dry noodles are scalded, finely chopped pieces of tofu or meat, and vegetables are added. All ingredients are poured into boiling broth.

Have you wondered what to try in Vietnam? Well, of course, pho soup, which you will be served with fresh herbs (mostly basil), chili peppers, lime, soybean sprouts, and thick sweet and sour sauce, which should be added to the plate to taste. Eat with a spoon and chopsticks.

Interestingly, this dish is prepared not only in restaurants and cafes, but also on the street over coals. We must admit that this is not the only noodle soup in Vietnamese cuisine. Almost every region has its own variety of soups. Among those that are popular throughout the country: Bún bò Huế - quite typically, in beef broth with round rice noodles, Mì Quảng - soup with sausages, yellow thin noodles and peanut topping.

Salads

It cannot be said that Vietnamese cuisine is replete with salads. What to try from this category of dishes? For example, from banana inflorescences, sprouted soybeans, with the addition of mint and basil. Many people like a salad made from fresh vegetables, lotus stem and rice cakes. Seafood lovers will appreciate the salad of grilled mussels, to which mint and rice paper are added.

Snacks

What to try in Vietnam from snacks? We recommend rice rolls- fried, crispy, and also steamed. Most likely, you will like egg-wheat pancakes with seafood, although the filling can be very varied. Another one interesting snack- grilled bread with rice, served with various sauces and rice puddings with peanuts.

Goi Kuon

This dish can be compared to specially molded dumplings. It came to Vietnam from China. Unlike the Chinese dish, the Vietnamese dish has a different filling and is cooked not in a frying pan, but steamed. In Vietnamese cuisine, the shape is also different - instead of traditional “onions” they are made in the form of rolls.

The filling of Goi Kunov can be different - from vegetables to pork and seafood. From rice flour The dough turns out low-calorie and very tender. For this reason, even with the “heaviest” filling, this dish will not be a burden for sensitive stomachs.

Exotic dishes

Probably, this section will only interest gastronomic extremes, and yet we cannot ignore it. Business card local cuisine are dog meat dishes. Cages with live animals installed near restaurants and cafes, smoked dog carcasses cause a real shock among visiting Europeans, but for the Vietnamese this is a common occurrence.

Statistics show that almost three million dogs are eaten in Vietnam in just one year. Their meat is very fatty and resembles pork in texture and taste. Steam the fillets and serve them with shrimp paste and lemon or rice vinegar.

The ribs and neck are pre-marinated in soy sauce and then grilled. Sausages made from dog fillet - Doi Cho - are also popular. As you can see, Vietnamese cuisine is very unique. What to try from the described dishes is up to you.

Traditionally, many people consider rats to be insignificant rodents, but this is not the case with the Vietnamese. For them, rat meat is a delicacy. It is very juicy, bright pink in color. By taste qualities and the texture is a bit like rabbit meat. Rat carcasses are prepared according to different recipes, but more often they are baked in ovens or grilled. The dish is served with chili peppers and sweet and sour sauce.

Vietnamese chefs offer gourmet dishes made from bats. Enough bad smell The meat of these animals forces cooks to marinate it for a long time in herbs and spices, and then fry it on the grill. The dish is served with a lot of greens, a side dish of rice, chili pepper and garlic. Nowadays, dishes from ostrich meat. Vietnam did not stand aside either.

It doesn't make much of an impression on many tourists. It tastes a little like beef: regular steaks that can have varying degrees of toughness.

Cobra dishes

Snake meat is very popular in Vietnamese cuisine. It is considered healing, many are even sure that dishes prepared from it are not only very tasty, but also very good for health. Cooking a snake is an interesting ritual. First, the head of the cobra is cut off, after which the blood is expressed, which is poured into a bottle of rice vodka. Then the heart is taken out, which continues to beat for about half an hour, and the carcass is taken to the kitchen, where processing continues.

While a restaurant guest is waiting for his order, he is offered to drink vodka with blood and have a snack raw heart snake, which should be swallowed whole. For some time you can feel its beating inside. This is a very strange ritual for a European, but the Vietnamese believe that it has a beneficial effect on a person, giving him longevity and peace.

Dessert

I must say that the Vietnamese have a big sweet tooth. What to try in Vietnam to end your dinner? Many tourists believe that the most delicious Vietnamese dessert is Small pieces The fruit is sprinkled with rice and then baked over coals, gradually adding coconut milk. The dish is served with chopped peanuts. This delicacy is not only served in cafes - it is extremely popular among the Vietnamese as street food.

Desserts in Vietnamese cuisine are quite varied. No less tasty is Banh Kam - balls of orange, sesame and golden rice. Visit local bakeries, which have a large selection of buns and croissants. I would especially like to mention sweets, but not chocolate ones, but made from natural products: coconut, ginger, sesame, peanuts and bananas.

Che

This dessert is difficult to classify: pudding, drink, sweet soup. It may contain jelly and beans, lotus seeds and fruits, coconut flakes and sesame, rice and tapioca, corn and taro. All ingredients are seasoned with sweet or syrup. Most often, dessert is eaten cold from plastic or glass cup. Sometimes che is served in bowls, like soup.

Beverages

The most unusual drink in Vietnam is egg coffee. It is made from sugar, yolk and condensed milk. The Vietnamese claim that the egg in this recipe is necessary to achieve a delicate texture and mild taste. The drink actually comes out with a light foam on top and is airy.

When it gets especially hot, both locals and visitors to the country prefer other Vietnamese drinks. Smoothies and juicy fruit shakes here have hundreds of variations. From strong drinks We recommend trying excellent balms infused with medicinal herbs. In addition, good wine is produced in Vietnam. The city of Dalat is the leader in this.

Cà phê

If you are a coffee fan, then you should try the Vietnamese drink. This country is the second largest coffee producer in the world after Brazil, although the bulk of the beans is Robusta. Vietnamese people like to roast very darkly, which gives their coffee a bitter aftertaste. But the taste of Vietnamese coffee largely depends not so much on the beans, but on the method of their preparation.

To brew this drink, drip filters are used, which are installed directly on the mug. Sometimes you need to brew your coffee in advance, especially if you plan to serve it over ice. In this case, the glass or mug is served without a filter.

Always served sweet. This is done to balance the excess bitterness of the drink. If you are still wondering what to try in Vietnam, drink a cup of coffee with condensed milk - you will appreciate the waffle and chocolate notes of the drink. If you prefer unsweetened coffee, you must tell the waiter in advance. Also, keep in mind that “coffee with milk” in Vietnam means condensed milk. If you want to order regular milk, you need to say fresh milk. Vietnamese coffee served with green tea, which is added without restrictions.

Are you planning to visit Vietnam? Surely you are wondering what you will eat during your vacation, and general information will never be redundant.

This article will discuss the features of national Vietnamese cuisine, as well as the main dishes of Vietnam.

The total number of Vietnamese dishes reaches 500 items, and that’s not all. The variety of dishes will not disappoint anyone, even the most fastidious gourmet. Vietnam is deservedly considered the core of gastronomic tourism.

A special feature of Vietnamese cuisine is its extraordinary aroma, which is sometimes even repulsive. At the same time, the taste of any dish leaves a unique impression and aftertaste.

In one article it is impossible to talk about all the features of Vietnamese cuisine, as well as to compile the most complete culinary reference book for this country. Each part of Vietnam has different national preferences and dishes. Due to territorial and historical background, in Vietnamese cuisine you will find a combination of Thai, Chinese and even French cuisine.

Vietnamese cuisine is characterized by the use of Pho or Pha Bo soup ( Pho Bo ) (beef), crab noodles, sticky rice cake, and various types rice noodles. The most popular sauce in Vietnam there is a fish sauce called Pios Cham.

Vietnamese cuisine will amaze you with its diversity, as well as the combination of the most different products in one dish. For the Russian perception of taste, perhaps not all dishes will seem tasty, but they will definitely be remembered.

For the Vietnamese themselves, Russian cuisine is considered boring, without a wide variety of combinations of sour, sweet, spicy tastes, as well as spices and smells, which add from 4 to 15 seasonings to each dish. It turns out unique taste peaks culinary arts craftsmanship and secrets that are more than 2 thousand years old.

Rice (Vietnamese "C ơ m" " reads like "com"). On the streets you can often see such signs with the words: C ơ m G à (with chicken), C ơ m B ò (with beef), C ơ m Heo (with pork). - This is the basis of almost all dishes in Vietnam. It is used as a side dish and is also transformed into other products - rice paper, wine, noodles and more.

Conventionally, Vietnam should be divided into three parts based on food preferences - northern, central and southern Vietnam.

So, what dishes are popular in the northern part of the Asian country?

1. Pho soup " - perhaps the most popular dish in this part of the country, which can be tasted in almost any restaurant and cafe, as well as at any time of the day. It is famous for its aroma and aftertaste. The soup is prepared in broth, which is boiled for 3 to 6 hours; meat (usually beef), sprouted soybean sprouts or corn sprouts, and noodles are added to it. The soup is served separately with chili sauce and herbs. There are three variations, with fully cooked meat in this broth, with meat so thinly sliced that when placed in the broth it instantly cooks right at the moment of serving, and with raw meat.

2. Các món ăn từ ốc (in Russian menus it is funny translated as “Monday ocean”) - a dish with a strange name containing snails. The dish is famous for its variety, because snails can be cooked with anything, including herbs, side dishes, and so on. Snails can be fried and boiled, and can be seasoned with various sauces. There are no limits to the imagination of chefs.

3. Spring roll (Vietnamese cuộn mùa xuân), made from rice paper and filled with minced fish, meat or sweets. The dish is popular throughout the country.

Due to the climate in the north of the country, the Vietnamese prefer to use the grill for cooking, and among main dishes they prefer soups and broths. In addition, the northern cuisine of Vietnam is considered traditional, but the southern one includes admixtures from Thailand, China, France and other countries.

In Vietnam's central provinces, mountainous areas and cities such as Hue, Da Nang, Hoi An and the mountain town of Da Lat in the south, popular dishes include:

1. Bo Kho (Bo Kho) is a fragrant broth with cinnamon and star anise, some tomatoes, coarsely chopped carrots and tender beef are added to it. Pho Bo is completely different from traditional Pho Bo and can rather be attributed to European cuisine. It is usually served with a Banh Mi baguette, which is optionally filled with additional meat and herbs.

2. Baguettes filled with Banh Mi (Vietnamese - Bánh mì), a direct legacy of the colonial period of France in Vietnam. One of the most common fast foods in all Vietnamese cities in this region.

The filling of such a baguette with a crispy crust is varied and depends only on the imagination of the cook, this includes fried meat and meatballs, seafood, various sauces, greens with sweet onions, and all this is heated in a toaster.

3. Bun Bo Hue soup (Vietnamese - Bún bò Huế)

In fact, this is the brother of Pho soup. However, what they have in common is only meat broth, which takes several hours to cook. Instead of noodles, round shaped rice vermicelli is used, the meat is placed in large pieces, as in the Uzbek “Laghman”. In addition, lemon grass is added to the broth itself, beef blood and shrimp paste.

It must be accompanied by shavings of banana inflorescences and a lot of greens. This traditional soup imperial capital.

4. Ban Bao rice flour cakes (Viet. Bá nh bao ), are steamed and are somewhat similar to our manti.

They combine minced meat with spices and vegetables and herbs. IN classic pie often add half a boiled egg. A very tasty and filling dish.

Even the residents themselves do not know the number of variations of the filling. They often serve as both a snack food and a full-fledged dessert if the filling is sweet.

5. Vegetable stew Ka Tim (Viet. C à T í m Kho Tộ )

A very common street dish, it is served alongside Pho soup in many small Vietnamese cafes. Prepared in clay pot with eggplants, tomatoes, chili peppers, onions, adding potato flour, rapeseed oil, coconut milk, which gives special tenderness, spices, sugar, soy and oyster sauce. Served separately green onions, mint and herbs. The dish is very unusual. In itself it is very unusual, and is served with a small portion of rice.

Popular in the South are:

1. Pancakes, which are radically different from Russian pancakes. If you think that these are traditional Russian pancakes, then you are mistaken, because Vietnamese pancakes are a whole cooking masterpiece. Their filling consists of eggs, crab meat, pork, herbs, carrots, and cabbage. And the shell (the pancakes themselves) is made from rice flour. The dish is fried in sunflower oil.

2. Soup with dumplings (Viet. hu tieu mi hoanh thanh)

One of the heartiest dishes in central Vietnam, with rich broth and dumplings filled with seafood or meat, depending on the customer's wishes.

3. Original dish Laumam can only be found in Vietnam. Speaking in simple language- This is meat with vegetables. You will not find such a quantity of mixed vegetables in any other dish (the maximum can reach 24 items). The dish is spiced up with special fish sauce.

Many tourists going to Vietnam have, of course, heard that the Vietnamese cannot do without strange delicacies - the meat of snakes, dogs, and various insects. This is more an exception to the rule than everyday food for this people. If you can see dogs being cooked somewhere, it is not because they really want to eat it, but because dog meat is cheaper than pork.

As for snake dishes, it is truly a tourist attraction, which is mainly popular among Chinese tourists.

Vietnamese cuisine is very diverse, tasty and, in most cases, healthy. Its basis is the freshest vegetables, fruits, herbs, seafood, fish and meat. Moreover, if you are going to Vietnam, you will be very pleased with the prices for food here - this is one of the cheapest countries in terms of food (and housing) where I have ever been.

Conventionally, all Vietnamese cuisine can be divided into three large sections - soups, street food and main dishes (we also include a few desserts).

Soup is the most popular dish in Vietnam. There are a lot of variations of them here, although most of them are based on noodles and meat. Details about Vietnamese soups I already told you in .

Now let's talk about the must-try main dishes in Vietnamese restaurants and cafes.

So what do I think must try food in Vietnam :

Com there

Rice is the boss of everything. In Vietnam, and throughout Asia. It is eaten as a separate dish and served with other dishes instead of bread. In Vietnamese, rice is lump. Kom Tam is a dish consisting of rice, fried pork, egg and vegetables. Very tasty and filling! And in most cases - cheap.

Apart from who there is, try fried rice in any of the variations - with seafood, with eggs, with tofu, with vegetables, etc. The dishes are simple, but they know how to cook rice so deliciously that even those who don’t usually eat it like it.

Ban Thich Nuong

This is the name of rice noodles with grilled pork. This and the previous dish can be found not only in cafes, but also as street food, and in the prepared food section in large supermarkets (Lottemart, Big C, etc.). In stores they cost about 20-30 thousand dong, they are cheap and convenient to take with you or eat right at the food court.

We also really like noodles with beef or shrimp and vegetables.

Kho To

My favorite dish. It consists of caramelized shrimp, fish or pork in a clay pot. In Nha Trang, I liked this dish most at the Lanterns restaurant (however, everything there is delicious).

Beef Onion varnish

Very tasty the most tender beef, stewed in sauce, served with rice and vegetables.

Beef in bamboo

The Vietnamese know how to cook beef, and it turns out delicious in most dishes. But I want to especially highlight the beef in bamboo. If you see it on the menu, take it with confidence))

Salads

Salads you need to try in Vietnam:

with mango;
with papaya;
with a pomelo.

Most often they are cooked with shrimp or other seafood and seasoned with spicy sauces.

Exotic animal meat

In Vietnam, many cafes and restaurants have frog, ostrich, crocodile, turtle or shark fin soup on their menus. Some tourists come here specifically to try dog meat, but it is found much less often in local establishments (fortunately, in my opinion). I know only one such place in Saigon and two in Hanoi, but I won’t give the names and addresses - I love dogs and don’t want to contribute to their eating.

Seafood

You can often see bowls of seafood on the streets of Vietnam. In most cases, they are fresh and still alive. Choose what you like and they will prepare it for you right away. Cost varies by location. In non-tourist places they cost pennies, in tourist places they are significantly more expensive. But still cannot be compared with prices in Russia.

Fish

Stewed in tomato sauce, grilled, baked with lemongrass - delicious in all versions! There are many types of fish, we most often took red snapper, cobia, and tuna (more on that below). Never take basa (aka pangasius, sole). This fish itself is harmless, but in Vietnam it is caught in the Mekong, one of the dirtiest rivers in the world. Therefore, here the quality and safety of this fish leave much to be desired.

Tuna

I’ll make it a separate point, because in Vietnam there are VERY delicious tuna. In Nha Trang, be sure to try the tuna with strawberry sauce at the Story restaurant. I still dream about it at night)) For its sake, I’m even ready to return to Nha Trang)) Although in other establishments the tuna was also delicious, but here it was especially so!

Flan

Flan is a dessert. The most famous and delicious of Vietnamese sweet dishes. It is a caramel pudding similar in taste to crème brûlée.

From drinks You should definitely try Vietnamese coffee with milk, coffee with beaten egg (popular in the north of the country), various variations cold coffee (coconut is my favorite), cane juice, freshly squeezed juices and cocktails.

I will not recommend Vietnamese alcohol. The rum, wine and beer here are of very low quality. Although, to be fair, their price is also not high. Out of curiosity, you can try Dalat wine, Saigon beer and Chavet rum, but I warned you - don’t expect any special taste pleasure. Although many tourists love local rum and even take bottles of it home. Perhaps it’s just me who didn’t appreciate it at all, like other Vietnamese alcoholic drinks))

P.S. More information about our travels and photos in my

Vietnamese cuisine is very diverse, there are more than 500 traditional dishes. When coming to Vietnam, you should definitely try the most popular ones. Delicious food is part of Vietnamese culture, so it’s impossible to imagine a vacation without experiencing it.

The main rule for Vietnamese cuisine is to use only fresh products. Therefore, you don’t have to be afraid of anything food poisoning. The only precaution you need to take when dining in simple Vietnamese cafes is to wipe your forks and spoons before eating, and also treat your hands with antiseptic.

The basis of Vietnamese cuisine, as in many other Asian countries, is rice (Com in Vietnamese). It is used as a side dish; rice replaces bread for the Vietnamese. It is served boiled or fried. The Vietnamese serve nuoc mam fish sauce as a sauce for most dishes. It resembles soy sauce, but has a slightly sweet taste.

Vietnamese people love the flavor of lime in their dishes, so many soups and meat dishes add lime juice. Lime is served with all seafood dishes.

So, let's move on to the most interesting Vietnamese dishes that you definitely need to try.

Soups. Of course, the most popular soup in Vietnam is Pho soup. It consists of rice noodles in meat broth with the addition of a small amount of vegetables and herbs. The pieces of meat in the soup are cut into thin slices, and sprouted soybean sprouts are added on top. We were surprised when we were served Pho soup for breakfast in Ho Chi Minh City. After all, it’s not customary for us to eat soup for breakfast. And in Vietnam this soup is eaten at any time; it is very popular among both locals and tourists. Pho soup is very nutritious and tasty dish. When we have lunch at a cafe, we often choose this one; the average cost of a dish is 35-50 tons dong or 1.5-2 dollars. There are several varieties of soup: with beef, pork, chicken or seafood. The Vietnamese eat it with chopsticks and a spoon.

Pho soup with beef

Bunh Bo Hue soup is the second most popular soup in Vietnam. Just like Pho, it is made with meat broth. The differences between the soups are that Bun Bo Hue uses a different type of noodles, and instead of thin slices of meat they add big pieces with bones. In addition, shrimp paste and lemon grass are added to Bun Bo Hue, which makes its taste more piquant.

The dish "Bun Cha Ca" is fish soup with small pies with fish sauce, garlic and pepper. The dish is served with rice noodles. It is very fragrant and unusual soup, completely different from the ear. I recommend you try it!

In some restaurants you can make your own soup from various ingredients. This dish is called Hot Pot, its cost starts from 150 VND or 8 dollars. This big dish, it’s better to order it for two. To prepare hot pot in a cafe, they bring a special gas burner to the table and place a pan of water on it. Plates with various ingredients, from which you cook yours own soup: seafood, meat, fish, herbs, vegetables, spices, etc. We cooked soup from shrimp, noodles, cauliflower, herbs and spices, it turned out very tasty. Periodically, the waiter came up to us and monitored the process.

Another popular soup is crab soup. We tried it first, back in Ho Chi Minh City. It's very tasty and nutritious soup with a rich crab aroma. For cooking, crab meat, water and spices are used. Judging by the consistency, there was nothing else in the soup. The cost is small (about 40 tons dong - 2 dollars), but the portions are very small. I really liked the eel soup (cost 60 tons dong - 3 dollars). But anyway thai soups we like them better than the Vietnamese ones.

Meat dishes. The variety of meat dishes is impressive: chicken, beef, pork, pigeons, ducks, frogs, ostriches, crocodiles, turtles, lizards, snakes, etc. In general, it seems that the Vietnamese eat everything that moves! In one of the restaurants, my husband really liked the ostrich meat, it tasted a little like beef: the meat was dark in color and quite tough. Crocodile meat is more tender, similar to chicken. I don’t eat these meat delicacies, I describe them from my husband’s words.

It's no secret that people in Vietnam eat dog meat. In the northern part of the country, dog meat dishes are very popular among the local population. And it's terrible! But in the southern part and, especially, in resort towns, there are neither dogs nor cats on the menu; eating dogs here is considered bad manners.

In some restaurants you can taste rat or mouse meat. If you want to try a snake, there is a whole ritual you can order in Vietnam. The snake is cut up in front of your eyes, you are offered to drink fresh blood with vodka, eat the still warm heart, after which you will be served the cooked meat. Up to 10 different dishes can be prepared from one snake, so the ritual is usually ordered for a group. They say that the blood and heart of a snake are very beneficial for human health. But we are not ready for such a bloody ritual yet!

Another dish that can be found on the menu of any Vietnamese restaurant in Nha Trang is rice paper pancakes - “nem”. There are a variety of fillings for pancakes: both meat and vegetable. In size, Vietnamese nems are not at all similar to Russian pancakes: they are very small, almost one bite.

Nem Nuong is another dish using rice paper. These are homemade large rice paper rolls. The cafe brings separately sheets of rice paper, herbs and meat or fish for filling. You need to put all the ingredients on the sheet, especially a lot of greens. After that, roll the sheet into a roll - and you can eat!

Steamed rice cakes with filling look like snow-white lumps. They are sold everywhere: in street stalls, in supermarkets, and can be ordered in any cafe. The fillings can be very different.

Stuffed rice cakes

If you don’t have time to go to a cafe, but still want to have a snack, you can buy a Vietnamese baguette with filling (Banh Mi). It is prepared on the street and can have any filling. Usually the filling consists of pieces of meat or ham, lard, cucumbers, tomatoes, herbs, and sometimes an egg and cheese are added. The baguette is topped with sauce. Cost from 10 to 20 thousand dong or 0.5-1 dollar depending on the chosen filling. Trays of Vietnamese baguettes can be found on all the busy streets of Nha Trang.

Vietnamese hot dogs

Vietnamese salads. Vietnamese salads seemed too specific to us. But maybe we just made a bad choice. We ordered a salad from a Vietnamese cafe called “Vietnamese salad.” There were no ingredients on the menu, which made it even more interesting. The composition, it would seem, turned out to be quite simple: beef, quail eggs, greens, a large number of onions. But...everything was well seasoned with sugar.

More successful was a salad called “Nom Hoa Chu” made from pieces of chicken, shavings of banana blossoms, cabbage and sprouted soybeans. It was topped with a slightly spicy dressing and sprinkled with nuts.

My husband liked the fried mussel salad with mint, soy sprouts and rice paper. The cost is about 2-3 dollars per serving.

Seafood dishes. Of course, the most popular among tourists are seafood dishes. The choice of seafood in Vietnam is huge: shrimp of different sizes, lobsters, mussels, rapana, oysters, squid, cuttlefish, octopus, sea mantises, sea urchins and much more.

Under no circumstances buy shrimp and lobsters on the beach from Vietnamese women who carry them in special heating pots. They for a long time are under the scorching sun and, of course, are not fresh. We were told about numerous cases of serious poisoning among Russian tourists from seafood purchased on the beach.

We ate fresh seafood dishes mainly in one very popular local cafe. It’s hard to even call it a cafe, the interior is too ugly. More precisely, the interior is completely absent. There are small tables and very tiny chairs against the wall. There is no menu as such, you just go up to large buckets of seafood and fish and choose what you like.

Grilled frogs taste like chicken, only even more tender. They can be found in any seafood cafe. You can order both whole carcasses and fried legs in batter ($4-5 per dish).

Grilled fish costs about 4-5 dollars for a large portion.

The prices are reasonable, but not as low as in the cafes for locals that we pass along the road. But we haven’t dared to go there yet, it’s too dirty around here! There are a variety of seafood in bowls with ice. Small clams and brine are especially popular. Our interest was aroused by strange seafood in the form of large hedgehogs. But we haven’t tried it yet!

Cafe for locals

Vietnamese desserts. Candied fruits and candied fruits are very popular among the Vietnamese. Before Chinese New Year, they sold out the entire section of the Big C supermarket.

The menu of Vietnamese cafes usually has a small selection of desserts. One of them is coconut mousse, served inside a fresh coconut. Cost – 1-2 dollars.

And, of course, in Vietnam you need to try fruits, of which there is a huge variety: papaya, passion fruit, sugar apple, durian, dragon, mango different varieties, sapadilla, lychee, langans, mangosteens, rambutans, guava, anona, water apple, carambola, spondias, star apple. I have not yet listed the entire list of fruits. Each of them has its own unique taste.

Fruits. Vietnam

Traditional Vietnamese drinks. In almost any cafe and restaurant they bring green tea. This tea is a traditional Vietnamese drink called Cha da. It is often served with ice. Vietnamese tea perfectly quenches thirst and refreshes in hot weather. He has a pleasant mild taste, differs from the usual green tea.

Vietnamese tea

Cane sugar is our favorite drink in Vietnam. We've been wanting to try it for a long time, but apparently it's not popular in Thailand; we haven't come across it. But in Nha Trang they do it on almost every street. The juice is squeezed out of a cane stick with half a lime on a special machine. The cost of juice is 5-10 tons dong or 0.25 dollars. Cane juice is very tasty: sweetish, with a slight hint of lime. It is poured either into glasses if you are going to drink it right away, or into small bags of ice. The first time I saw that juice was poured into a bag, a straw was inserted and it was tied!

This is how cane juice is made

And, of course, what kind of vacation could there be in Vietnam without Vietnamese coffee? Vietnam ranks second after Brazil in coffee exports. Coffee is usually grown in mountainous areas. Near Nha Trang, in the vicinity of the city of Dalat, there are coffee plantations. Vietnamese coffee is highly roasted. He has rich taste and thick aroma.

Vietnamese coffee is prepared using special technology; it is not brewed in Turkish coffee pots or coffee pots. For cooking, a special filter is used, which is placed on top of the coffee cup. Pour a few teaspoons into the filter ground coffee to taste, press with a press, then fill the filter with boiling water to the edge. Drops of coffee will gradually flow from the filter into the cup. The cooking process takes 3-5 minutes. After the coffee has completely drained from the filter, add boiling water or milk to taste to the cup.

In Vietnamese cafes, coffee is served either black or with the addition of condensed milk. Particularly popular iced coffee with ice. The cost is about 15,000 dong (0.8 dollars).

Iced coffee

We were surprised by the prices for beer in cafes and restaurants; a bottle of good Saigon beer costs 10,000 dong ($0.5). Red and white wine, which is produced in the neighboring city of Da Lat, costs from 80,000 VND per bottle (4-5 dollars).

If you don't like or are tired of Vietnamese cuisine, in Nha Trang great amount Russian, Italian, Kyrgyz, Armenian and other restaurants and cafes. Since the majority of vacationers in Nha Trang are Russian, restaurants with Russian cuisine are very popular. There are a lot of them in Nha Trang, we visited several of them. For example, the Moscow restaurant made us very happy. Everything was delicious, reasonable prices, good service. In the Cosmos restaurant we even found smoked mackerel and fresh draft beer. After 6 months on Samui, where the choice of Russian dishes is very limited, I enjoyed eating okroshka with kvass and cabbage rolls. Vietnamese cuisine, without a doubt, deserves attention, but Russian cuisine is still closer!

Selecting hotels in Vietnam

Nha Trang hotels with reviews

We talk about what we eat in Vietnam (how much it costs and what it looks like). This is our big overview of Vietnamese food, names of dishes and prices.

We will be there for a month and a half, so the need arose to somehow understand the food - what is what in Vietnamese cuisine. Having purchased a special notebook, we began to write down the names of dishes and their translations, as well as everything that might be useful when communicating (more precisely, when trying to explain ourselves) with employees of local street eateries. The situation is complicated: the menu, if there is one at all, is only in Vietnamese, and among the catering workers, almost no one knows English, and if anyone knows even a little, they speak with such an accent that we can no longer understand anything. So you have to explain yourself mainly through sign language.

Advice: To correctly translate from Vietnamese, use the Tieng viet TCVN 6064 virtual keyboard in Google Translator - there you will find all the necessary characters.

Entering the names of dishes in Vietnamese into a notepad has become easier - you can simply show the cook the inscription and he will say whether such a dish is available, or twirl the “flashlights”, which means “no” in Vietnam.

We started our journey from Ho Chi Minh City, and as we move towards the north of Vietnam we will supplement the article with new names, descriptions and photos of food in Vietnam, prices for dishes, and also, if possible, note regional differences in dishes. UPD: we did just that, read our comparison in different cities of the country.

Let’s make a reservation that we eat exclusively in small street eateries in order to imbue the spirit of the ordinary Vietnamese people and save money. It usually happens like this: the lower you sit, the tastier and cheaper you eat. Even white-collar workers - serious business men - do not hesitate to sit on a low plastic chair at a street eatery and have a snack.

Remark from Alyosha : During our stay in Vietnam, there was not a single case where we ate in some eatery, sitting side by side with a “white man”; our desk neighbors were always local residents. It is very rare for a European to sit on a plastic chair at street eateries, but in vain, because this is the way to eat when traveling that guarantees that the prices are minimal.

Exchange Rates at the time of writing: 1000 Vietnamese dong = 2.76 rubles, and $1 = 21,400 dong. Roughly speaking, to translate the price of this or that Vietnamese dish in rubles, cut off three zeros from the value in dong and multiply by 3 - you get the ruble equivalent.

Food prices in Vietnam are not too high, but given the fall of the ruble, they have become approximately the same as in Russia.

Food in Vietnam: what it costs, descriptions of dishes and their writing in Vietnamese

Nem cuốn, bánh tráng cuốn or gỏi cuốn And chả giò(in Northern, Central and Southern Vietnam, respectively) - nem pancakes, or rolls. They are filled rolls wrapped in thin rice paper. The filling consists of rice noodles, shrimp, bacon, herbs and other ingredients - at the discretion of the cook. Rolls are served chilled or room temperature. Price - from 6 thousand dong per piece.

Chả nem or nem ran(respectively, in the south and in the north) - also rolls with filling, but small and fried. The filling consists of minced meat, mushrooms, vegetables and herbs; it may vary. Price - from 3.5 thousand dong per piece.
Phở soup (pho) — National dish Vietnam, you should definitely try it. It's very tasty and rich beef broth with rice noodles, to which either thin slices of beef are added ( pho bo - phở bò), or chicken pieces ( fo ga - phở gà) or fish ( phởca). The soup is served with local herbs like mint and mung bean sprouts, dipping sauces and lime slices for squeezing. In general, there are a lot of varieties of soups in Vietnam - they can differ in types of noodles or meat and vegetables. Price: in Ho Chi Minh City we found pho bo for 20 thousand dong, but on average it costs 25 - 30 thousand dong. In Can Tho it costs 18 thousand dong.

Phở bò - beef soup

Bún chả (Bún thịt nướng in the south)— fried pork with rice noodles. Served with fresh herbs and vegetables, as well as sauces. Price: from 25 thousand dong.
Goi bo- salad of beef, vegetables and herbs. Price: from 17 thousand dong.
Bún ca- fish noodle soup. Price: in Can Tho - from 15 thousand dong.
(or Bún riêu) - soup with noodles, tomatoes, snails, beef, chicken, boiled pig blood and greens. Price: from 28 thousand dong.

Bún ốc - soup with noodles, meat and snails

Banh canh- noodles soup. There are many varieties: cua- with crab, tom- with shrimp and so on. Price: from 25 thousand dong.
- very common street food in Vietnam. A very tasty fresh baguette with a “combined” filling at the discretion of the seller: vegetables, pork/beef/sausage, herbs, pate, chili (usually sellers ask if you need to put pepper), sauce. All this is wrapped in paper and placed in a bag. Very convenient: a Vietnamese guy arrived on a bike, they prepared a sandwich for him in 2 minutes, and he rode off. You can find mobile baguette shops almost everywhere (with the exception of the center - there are practically none there). Cost: from 10 thousand dong per piece - red price. In more tourist areas we met for 15 and 20 thousand (Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Hue, Halong). A baguette option with fried pork costs from 15 thousand VND.

Banh bao (ban bao, dumpling pies)- this is a pie from yeast dough, steamed. Filling (may vary): pork/chicken, quail egg, onions, mushrooms, vermicelli. There is a vegetarian version of bánh bao. Price: from 10 thousand dong. Sometimes the price depends on the weight (seen in Hanoi).
- another street food. You could say this is bread pudding. Basically, it's a fried banana cake that's a bit like pudding in consistency. The ingredients can vary greatly, but it is usually made from bananas, bread, coconut milk, etc. Very tasty and filling. Bánh chuối carts are mobile and can be identified by the characteristic sweet smell of waffles. By the way, the waffles themselves are often sold too. Often just such a banana mass with mung bean can be found in the form of fried waffles. Cost: in Ho Chi Minh City they sold it to us for 12 thousand VND per piece, which, of course, is expensive. In Da Nang they sold us the same one for 5 thousand.

Chè chuối- among ourselves we called him “ banana pudding" In my opinion, one of the most delicious dishes in Vietnam. These are fried (sometimes fresh) bananas filled with hot coconut milk and pulp, as well as sprinkled roasted peanuts. Very tasty and filling! Served in plastic cups with a spoon. It's best eaten hot, but it's also delicious cold. In Hoi An we bought for 10 thousand dong, although in fact they sell it cheaper to locals (about 7 thousand).
- a rice dish with fresh vegetables and tender marinated grilled pork (you can also use grilled chicken instead). Added hot sauce and broth with herbs. This is one of the types of street food in Vietnam; you can ask for cơm tấm to take with you, and the dish will be placed in a special container. Price: from 25 thousand dong in Ho Chi Minh City, in Can Tho we ate cơm tấm for 15 thousand dong.

Cơm tấm - rice with pork

Banh chưng- a traditional Vietnamese dessert - a mass of gluten rice, mung bean, pork and other ingredients, wrapped in banana leaves. Price in the supermarket: from 30 - 35 thousand dong.
— Vietnamese street food. A hearty and tasty dish, very easy to prepare: pieces rice dough fried with egg and green onions. All this is topped with the famous nước mắm fish sauce. Price: from 22 thousand dong.

- also cheap street food in Vietnam. It is deep-fried pasta with scrambled eggs and herbs. Often served fresh vegetables. Price: from 22 thousand dong.

Nước mắm- fish sauce. It is obtained through the fermentation process of anchovy. Used instead of salt, you can dip pieces of food in it, or you can pour it over a dish - depending on the variety, of which there are many. Also added during cooking. Served free of charge.

Our journey is just beginning, so the article will gradually be filled with new information: we will continue to tell you about all the types of food that we try in Vietnam, as well as the prices for these Vietnamese dishes. To be continued…

Introductory image source: Khánh Hmoong / flickr.com.